Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title from 2021, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER reveals a system that is capable of delivering high frame rates at lower resolutions but struggles to maintain smooth gameplay at 4K with maximum settings. The measured frame rates show a clear progression where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases, while the processor’s four cores prove sufficient for the game's demands across all tested configurations. This combination ranks in the 1012th position out of 1684 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database, which aligns with its performance characteristics in this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K has a dramatic impact on average frame rates, with the data showing a steep performance cliff at higher resolutions. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers 110.2 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. When moving to 2560x1440 at the same High preset, the average drops to 69.3 FPS, a reduction of roughly 37% from the 1080p result. This indicates that the rendering load is scaling heavily with pixel count, and the RTX 2070 SUPER is already being pushed harder at 1440p. The most significant drop occurs at 3840x2160, where the High preset yields only 37.8 FPS, which is below the threshold for a consistently fluid experience in an action-oriented adventure game.

The scaling pattern across all presets confirms that the GPU is the limiting component at 4K. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 189 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 63.6 FPS, a reduction of 66%. This large delta between resolutions suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints, as the core architecture of the RTX 2070 SUPER, with its 256-bit memory bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, is being saturated by the 8.3 million pixels at 4K. Interestingly, the drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe than the drop from 1080p to 1440p, indicating a nonlinear scaling curve that is typical for GPUs with this level of memory bandwidth. For 1080p and 1440p gaming, the system is clearly CPU-bound at lower settings, as evidenced by the 189 FPS at 1080p Low versus the 119.3 FPS at 1440p Low, showing that the processor can still feed the GPU enough data at these resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its benchmark scores, such as 11912 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1681 in single-core, indicate that it has strong single-thread performance but limited multi-threaded throughput compared to higher-core-count CPUs. For Road 96, an adventure game that is not known for heavy multi-threading, this configuration proves adequate. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 189 FPS, which suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution, as the GPU is likely idle waiting for frames. However, at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 29.9 FPS, which is clearly a GPU limitation, as the CPU’s workload does not change significantly with resolution.

The processor’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support are sufficient for the game’s data requirements, and the lack of integrated graphics means the dedicated GPU handles all rendering. The 3DMark scores, particularly the 4-thread result of 2859 and the 8-thread result of 4026, show that the CPU scales reasonably well with additional threads, but the 4-core design limits its ceiling. In the context of Road 96, the CPU’s single-core performance, reflected in the 3DMark single-thread score of 893, is more relevant than its multi-thread capabilities, as adventure games typically rely on a few main threads for game logic and physics. The percentile ranking of 72 against all CPUs indicates that this processor is above average for general tasks, but its performance in this game is more dependent on the GPU at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance is achieved at 2560x1440 with High settings, which delivers 69.3 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay, and the visual upgrade from Medium is noticeable in an adventure game with narrative-driven environments. At 1920x1080, High settings provide 110.2 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays, but the resolution scaling suggests that users with 1080p monitors can push to Ultra, which still delivers 89.1 FPS, maintaining a high frame rate while maximizing visual fidelity. For those with 4K displays, the data indicates that High settings are not viable, as the 37.8 FPS average is below playable thresholds. The Ultra preset at 4K is even worse at 29.9 FPS, making it unsuitable for anything other than screenshots.

The Medium preset at 4K, which produces 48.3 FPS, is the only 4K option that approaches playability, but it still falls short of a consistent 60 FPS experience. Therefore, the recommendation is to play at 1440p High for the best overall experience, as it offers a high frame rate without sacrificing too much detail. At 1080p, users can afford to use Ultra settings for the best image quality, as the performance headroom is substantial. The Low preset, which produces 189 FPS at 1080p, is only necessary for competitive play or extremely high refresh rate monitors, as the visual downgrade is significant. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring significant compromises in settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1012th out of 1684 combos for Road 96. This places it in the 60th percentile of all tested systems, indicating that it performs better than the majority of configurations but is not among the top tier. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 13516 places it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, which scores 13534, a delta of -0.1%. This indicates that the i3-12100F is virtually tied with a much more expensive high-end processor in synthetic benchmarks, though the real-world gaming performance is more nuanced. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 22206 places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the NVIDIA RTX A400, which scores 22307, a delta of -0.5%.

The combo’s rank in the 1012th position suggests that while individual components are competitive, the pairing is not optimized for Road 96 in the same way as higher-end systems. For instance, the GPU is only 2.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile in average score, but the desktop RTX 2070 SUPER has a higher power envelope and better cooling, which may not translate to better performance in this specific game. The rank also reflects that many combos with more powerful CPUs and GPUs will naturally outperform this setup, especially at 4K. However, the data shows that for 1080p and 1440p gaming, this combo is more than adequate, and the rank in the upper-middle tier is consistent with its measured frame rates. The fact that it ranks 1012th out of 1684 means it outperforms roughly 40% of tested systems, which is a solid result for a mid-range configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip, featuring 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. Its base clock is 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and it comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s benchmark scores, including a Passmark G3D score of 18169 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1651, indicate that it is a capable performer for its generation. In Road 96, the GPU is the dominant factor in determining frame rates at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the significant drops from 1440p to 4K. At 1440p High, the GPU delivers 69.3 FPS, but at 4K High, it drops to 37.8 FPS, a 45% reduction, which is directly attributable to the increased pixel count.

The GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for Road 96 at all tested settings, as the game does not appear to be memory-constrained, given that the frame rates scale consistently with resolution. The 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is a key factor in the 4K performance, as the game’s textures and geometry require significant data throughput. The GPU’s compute capabilities, with 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, are more than adequate for this adventure title, which likely does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS extensively. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s percentile ranking of 65 against all GPUs shows that it is an above-average performer, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 5700, is 2.5% slower in average score. In Road 96, the GPU’s role is to provide high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, while at 4K, it becomes the limiting factor, requiring users to lower settings to maintain playable frame rates. The data clearly shows that for this game, the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary determinant of performance at resolutions above 1080p, and its 1770 MHz boost clock is sufficient to handle the game’s demands at lower resolutions.